As Royals surge, so have their local TV ratings

As the Royals slumped coming out of the gate this season, they not only fell in the standings, but their TV ratings took a hit too.

It’s no surprise that there was a correlation, and the result was that by May, the Royals’ local TV ratings had dropped to third in Major League Baseball at 7.5. Not terrible, but certainly a slip for the Royals, who had the highest local ratings in the majors the previous two seasons.

But the Royals, who at one point had a 10-20 record, caught fire after that and currently hold the second AL Wild Card spot. Their TV ratings have surged as well.

According to Nielsen, the Royals have averaged an 8.4 household rating on Fox Sports Kansas City games through Aug. 1. That is the highest local rating in baseball. The next two local markets in ratings are the Cleveland Indians and St. Louis Cardinals, although no ratings were provided by FSKC.

That number is down from last year when the Royals averaged a 10.9 household rating for games on FSKC.

The Royals averaged a similar rating on FSKC in July when they had the highest-rated month of the season at 10.8. That was a big jump from June when the rating was 7.6

Telecasts of the past week’s games have been the best of the season. On Monday, the Royals had a 14.3 rating for a loss at Baltimore. The second-ranked game was Saturday’s loss at Boston, where the rating was 13.5.

FSKC noted that Royals telecasts on the network remain the No. 1 programming in prime time in Kansas City since the start of the season.

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